To have an account created for a vehicle that was recently purchased, leased, or gifted and will be receiving a brand-new license plate, our office will need the following:
- Driver’s licenses or photo IDs of the listed vehicle buyers (expired IDs are not accepted)
- The front and back of the signed-over vehicle title, a bill of sale, or the lease agreement paperwork
The requested documentation can be submitted to our office through the request ticket form linked below. Copies can be scans or images taken from a smartphone, as long as the information is legible and preferably in PDF or a common image file format (PNG, JPEG).
However, if you have an active license plate from another vehicle you no longer own that you will be transferring to your new vehicle, you may be eligible for a license plate transfer. If the decal expiration is more than 3 months out and at least 1 of the owners on the old vehicle will also be on the title of the new vehicle, the transfer can be requested directly with the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Expired license plates cannot be transferred.
If you are not interested in receiving or transferring a license plate to your new vehicle and instead just want to put the vehicle title into your name, you will need to request “title only” through the South Carolina DMV. Please be aware that if you request title only and then want to plate the vehicle at a later time, our office will back tax the personal property account based on the purchase date of the vehicle.
For questions on license plate transfers, “title only” transactions, or how to fill out the vehicle title or a bill of sale, you will need to contact the South Carolina DMV. Their office can be reached at either 803-896-5000 (Columbia), 843-379-8822 (Beaufort) or 843-815-6981 (Bluffton).
Submit your information
To begin the process of having your motor vehicle registered, please provide our office the above applicable documentation by filling out and attaching documents to the request form linked here:
Motor Vehicle Request Ticket